PAVILION ARTS CENTRE, BUXTON

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ShAFF Digs Deep For Cavers

Event organiser, Matt Heason says: "Speleologists will love this year's ShAFF line-up. We've dug deep and gone the extra mile with a special caving screening plus the European premiere of the award-winning Into Darkness. For inspiration Rob Eavis is giving an illustrated lecture. And if you can't wait til the ShAFF weekend, there's a Robbie Shone Expert Night on caving photography on Friday 4th February with Petzl head-torch prizes. Don't forget, Robbie's fans can come along and cheer his entries to the Arc'Teryx Photo Shot competition".

Robbie Shone, three times BCRA Premier Trophy winner and recipient of the prestigious Giles Barker Award, has taken his camera to some of the remotest places on the planet. With a BA in Fine Art & Photography and a keen interest in adventure, travel and shooting extreme locations, Robbie has scoured the globe capturing unique images rarely seen by the wider world. As part of the ShAFF Expert Night Series he will give an illustrated lecture on caving photography. Local Caving shop Hitch N Hike will be donating 3 Petzl head torches as prizes at the event.

THE GIANT OF THE SOUTH asks how far would you push yourself to find a way on in a dark labyrinth of underground tunnels nearly a 1000m below the surface? The giant of the south follows a group of cutting edge Spanish cavers as they face that challenge, it's a rare opportunity to see what real underground exploration looks like, close up. With enough food for five days underground, will the team find a way on? (41 mins)

In CAVING WITH MONKS a group of British cavers and geologists explore and survey caves underneath Buddhist monasteries in Burma. (25 mins)

And in INTO THE DARKNESS Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, two of Europe's most successful cave divers, explore the Cogol dei Veci, a massive flooded cave in Northern Italy. The film follows their attempts in 2004 and 2005 to find a dry cave passage beyond the 2400m long first sump, and at the same time provides a rare opportunity to look behind the scenes and understand what it takes to be at the cutting edge of under-water cave exploration. Excellent narrative and videography, including scenes beyond the sump. (35 mins).

Plus, as part of the ADVENTURE MEDLEY 1 SCREENING (12pm Saturday 5th March, repeated 3pm Sunday 6th March) there's a chance to see a European Premiere of INTO DARKNESS. This award-winning US film follows a group of cavers, who push through impossibly small passages to access some of the final frontiers on earth.

As Rob puts it: "We cavers are unique. It's the unknown that drives us. Mountaineers can see their goal, generally before they've even left home. For cavers the only thing that is known about an undiscovered cave is our own imagination, and that is generally very wrong! Maybe when finding it, we create it? This talk will take you from a kilometre below a Chinese paddy-field to a kilometre from this building, via the lawless Albanian hilltops and the hollow Cretan mountains. So, are we mad? Let me show you what we've found and you can decide..."